This invention is directed to compositions and pharmaceutical preparations containing zinc chelated by essential fatty acids.
Diabetes, despite the availability of insulin treatment, remains an extremely serious disease, responsible for many deaths and substantial morbidity in the United States and other developed countries. Although insulin can regulate blood sugar levels in diabetics, the degree of control achieved with insulin is typically insufficient to prevent the occurrence of many sequelae from diabetes. These sequelae can include eye damage, often leading to blindness; circulatory problems; problems with wound healing; and other serious consequences. Therefore, improved treatments for diabetes are urgently required.
It is known that prostaglandins (PGs) bind zinc and regulate intestinal zinc transport (M. K. Song & N. F. Adham, "Role of Prostaglandin E.sub.2 in Zinc Absorption in the Rat," Am. J. Physiol. 234:E99-E105 (1978)) and that zinc influences prostaglandin synthesis activity in the small intestine and the vascular system of rats (M. K. Song & N. F. Adham, "Relationship Between Zinc and Prostaglandin Metabolisms in Plasma in Small Intestine of Rats," Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 41:1201-1209 (1985)). A relationship between zinc and the inhibition of glucose absorption is known (S. Southon et al., "Hexose Transport and Mucosal Morphology in the Small Intestine of the Zinc-Deficient Rat," Br. J. Nutr. 52:371-380 (1984)). Essential fatty acids include unsaturated fatty acids that are prostaglandin precursors, and administration of essential fatty acids is believed to be beneficial to diabetics (R. J. Illman et al., Atherosclerosis 59:313-321 (1986)).
However, because of the interaction between zinc metabolism and prostaglandin synthesis, administration of unsaturated fatty acids or essential fatty acids alone does not yield an optimum improvement in diabetes. Therefore, there is a need to provide an improved treatment of diabetes and other conditions in which zinc metabolism and fatty acid metabolism play roles by providing a convenient source of both zinc and essential fatty acids.